An historic day devastating action points to an even more historic action of divine consequence.
Yesterday was the day that bears a unique moniker. “A day which will live in infamy.” So said the American president FDR on December 7, 1941.
He was, of course, speaking about the sneak attack on the naval station at Pearl Harbor. That one attack catapulted America out of it’s isolationist tendencies and into WWII.
FDRs words resonate on an emotional level. Infamy is a word that we don’t use very often (or ever). It means “being known for a bad thing or a wicked act.” It carries a rich sense of “really really really bad”.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was definitely all of that. It was viscous, unprovoked and completely without regard for human life. A classic example of infamous.
I’d like to put a twist on this notion of “an infamous day”. It’s December and the thing that dominates this month is Christmas. The day that the Son of God left heaven and came to earth as a new-born infant.
Stop and think about that for a moment. The almighty second person of the trinity, of whom Hebrews says “He upholds the universe by the word of His power”, spend 9 months in utero.
When Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth (the mother of John the Baptizer), little John in the womb leaped in delight at His presence inside Mary. For 9 months, Jesus was not in glory, but inside Mary.
Think about it this way, 33 years later, Peter was scandalized that Jesus would stoop to wash his (Peter’s) feet. That was “beneath Jesus’ status”. How much more so is it beneath Jesus status to leave glory, where He was actively upholding every aspect of the created universe, to become a newborn infant, unable to see to His most basic needs?
Philippians 2 takes us through the process He followed. It says that He “emptied Himself” of all of His power, and glory and prerogatives. He set aside everything to which He was entitled to as Creator/God and became one with His creation.
That doesn’t happen casually.
It isn’t something that we would ever expect.
We celebrate when a human stoops to help others who are less fortunate or empowered. I think of going to these warehouses and spending an hour or two preparing food packs to send overseas to regions where hunger is real.
Now amp it up a bit by imagining someone like Jeff Bezos or the President of the United States (very influential and powerful) doing that. We’d be all fuzzy inside about it.
But compared to what Jesus did on that Christmas morn, it’s like comparing a fraction of an inch to a thousand miles.
Spending a couple hours without giving up really much of anything just can’t compare with emptying yourself of the power and the glory of being God for more than 30 years!
So as we come to Christmas – and celebrate the weeks of Advent (this is week 2), don’t lose track of the magnitude of what we’re talking about.
It was a day of infamy that Jesus decided to set aside everything that made Him God, and identify (forever after) with the thing He Himself had created.
From our perspective, it’s glorious good news. But from God’s vantage point, it was an unspeakable act.
The Babe in the manger that we celebrate was God’s most radical sacrifice in the history of the world to that point.
Let that be the day of infamy which echoes down through the halls of history.
I don’t know how to transition from that. It’s been something sitting on my heart all weekend. It feels heavy and significant. And I wanted to share it with you.
But I also want to share that today I started a new project. One of the books that I get really awesome feedback about is I Will Sing of My Redeemer. People love it and read it over and over. It’s a devotional that takes inspiration from 52 amazing hymns from the history of the Christian church. Those old hymn writers really knew how to express the glory of God, the beauty of the gospel and the sacrifice of calvary.
It is a shame we don’t sing them very much any longer.
In that book I carefully avoided all the great Christmas Carol songs. So today I started a file to look at 12 carols that speak truthfully about the wonder and joy of Christmas.
I hope to have this done quickly. It will only come out in e-book format, and only on my website. It’s something that I wanted to do for you, a way to help you focus on “the Reason for the Season”.
Like I said, I just started, so it will be a few days to get it all sorted. As soon as I’m done, I’ll let you know how to get it.
Meanwhile, I’d like to know – what is your favorite Christmas carol (and why)? I’ve picked 12 that I really like, but maybe if enough people suggest one I didn’t think of, I’ll add one more…
Until then, think on Emmanuel – God with us.
Dennis
